This invention relates to a device for applying a laminar flowing film of liquid, uniformly thin over a working width of the device, to a continuously advanced web of goods which includes a liquid distributing device supplied with liquid fed by a pump, with a liquid distribution chamber and an associated guide surface possibly provided with an overflow weir, from whose lower edge the film of liquid runs onto the web of goods e.g. textile goods including woven and non-woven materials, as it flows away; said liquid distribution chamber being connected by a supply line with the pump and extending toward the guide surface over a working width that is made greater than the cross section of the supply line.
A device of this kind is known from DE 35 22 320 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,845. This device has the advantage that it allows a fast change of the application liquid, e.g. dye, colorant or the like, in terms of its nature or color, without the previously necessary downtime or production of reject materials from the web of goods to be wetted, with uniform distribution and constant quantity of application liquid over the working width being ensured. This is brought about by a liquid supply chamber connected upstream from the overflow edge, which opens out in a conically expanding fashion toward the overflow weir, but is small in volume. In this manner, the contact of the liquid supply stream which is necessary to form a laminar liquid film flows up to the overflow weir. In such a device the liquid feed flow must be calmed because the liquid volume within this liquid supply chamber is very small while the amount of liquid to be applied over the working width of more than 30 liters/min/meter of the working width is very great and hence the inflow of the liquid into this device, divided between several supply lines, is very strong.
Upstream of the liquid supply chamber of the device according to the above-mentioned disclosure document, a liquid distribution chamber is located which extends over the entire working width in the exact same fashion as the overflow weir. The liquid distribution chamber has supply lines associated with it. The liquid flowing in through these lines is distributed in the distribution chamber by a plurality of baffles or partitions over the working width. Work with a device of this kind has shown that it does provide a rapid color change, but during the transition between one color and the next, an area, albeit small, is produced on the web of goods in which the colors mix with one another, especially in the form of tongue-shaped mixtures of color in the spaces between the individual feed lines.